Perspectives of Law and Public Administration (Mar 2021)
THE TWELVE TABLES LAW, THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE FROM THE ROMAN LAW
Abstract
The most important of Roman law, the Law of the Twelve Tables, LEX DVODECIM TABVLARVM, was adopted in 449 BC and was never formally abolished. The consequence of conflicts between the social classes of the Roman state, patricians and plebeians, the Decemiviral Law constitutes a true code, given the nature of the regulations of the famous law which concerned both the institutions of Roman private law and the Roman public law. Although it was adopted about 2,500 years ago, the analysis of the Law of the Twelve Tables does not cease to attract the scholars and practitioners of contemporary private law, the study of the current legal institutions requires a retrospective look at their primary source. The paper aims to present the historical and social context that allowed the adoption of the Law of XII Tables, the procedure for the adoption of the law, the persons and bodies involved in this procedure. I will also analyse the content of the law and even present the text of the Law of the XII Tables, as reconstructed over time by the scholars of Roman law. In carrying out this scientific approach, I will use the specific methods of interpretation of the legal norms, namely, the historical, grammatical, systematic and teleological method.
